The four beings felt the passage of the soul at the moment of her death and stomped their hooved feet impatiently from being so close to claiming their prize. They motioned for the girl to be collected from inside the building and they waited. Three of the disfigured warriors cautiously approached the front door and entered the darkness. The moments dragged on and felt like an eternity to all who stood before the old mill, and the Four Horsemen continued to wait.
They waited.
With the sound of air being sucked into a vacuum, a loud swish of wind erupted suddenly. The door blew off its hinges from a massive fireball. The entire front of the mill caught a flame and collapsed from the impact of the explosion. Then all was deathly silent. The old mill was obscured by rising, thick smoke billowing and swirling into the sky. After what felt like an eternity, something emerged from the haze. Slowly, a small, lone figure walked into view out of the rubble. Tabitha stood alone with eyes transfixed on the four entities.
“Take her and let us be done with this matter. The sooner the Father of the Sky and the Son of Fire take hold of their prize, the sooner the day of Armageddon will be upon us.”
A cold and hateful smile emerged on each of the four being’s faces, as they spoke with a breath of lust.
“Bring us the body of the witch. Opportunity may still linger in our favor, for if warmth remains within the flesh, her soul is still within our grasp. We will pierce the membrane between here and the afterlife and take hold of her spirit.”
Three of the Horsemen’s warrior approached the little girl, as she continued her slow walk out of the debris. Her gaze remained fixed and unbroken upon the four beings, and she took no notice of the approaching creatures. The Horsemen’s servants looked at each other uncertainly. Something was wrong. Something was not right. There was no fear in the child’s face. There was no hesitation in her forward pace. In the last moments of their life, they realized there was no humanity left in the girl’s eyes.
Tabitha suddenly raised her hands and clutched her fingers toward the sky. Thorny roots erupted from the ground and below the surprised beasts. The vines wrapped themselves around the creatures and pierced their skin, entangling themselves around bone and tissue. More and more roots burst through the ground, and tighter and tighter their grip became. With hands still held above her head, Tabitha slammed them down onto the ground, and the three creatures exploded from being torn apart by the thorned vines.
Fear spread and consumed the army that stood before her, and they turned to flee. They scrambled and trampled each other to escape, for they saw and understood what approached. Tabitha looked left, then to her right and finally center. A wall of earth and stone rose from the ground and blocked all who attempted to retreat. Electricity from her palms branched out and incinerated those closest to her. She looked up to the sky and spoke the forbidden words of wormwood and hail of fire fell upon her enemies. She then spoke the prayer of desecration, and globulous worms with translucent skin emerged from the soil. Slow and awkward of movement they were, but their numbers quickly overwhelmed the army of the Horsemen. Their large and bulbous bodies fell upon the creatures, and they consumed and devoured their prey alive. Muffled screams of agony and torment could be heard from within the guts of the disgusting worms as they slowly sunk back into the Earth. The only hint of their presence was the wet ground still saturated with their slime and saliva.
Tabitha stood before the Four Horsemen without trepidation or fear. The Horsemen reared back each brandishing a weapon: a sword, a spear, a whip of razors, and a black sickle. Electricity filled the air and whipped to and fro between the small child and her four adversaries. Tabitha looked up and met each one’s gaze. She smiled and said, “Would you like to play a game with me?”
The Horsemen flew into a fury of rage, cursing and swearing at the little girl in their demonic tongue. Unfazed by the show of violence and anger, Tabitha repeated, “Would you like to play a game with me?
Each of the Horsemen shot up to the air. Invisible hands broke the bones in their arms and legs. The four beings remained suspended and restrained for a moment as Tabitha circled them and admired her work. They screamed in pain and terror as the little girl twirled them in the air for her pleasure and she skipped underneath the shower of their bleeding bodies as if it were a springtime rain. Tabitha danced and danced under the drizzle of blood. She danced to contain the rage. She danced to hide from the sorrow of loss. She danced until she could no longer dance. Tabitha stopped and closed her eyes and screamed into the night sky. Her voice crossed the land for miles and miles, shattering rocks and splintering trees. She stood there motionless for a bit, then rose her head towards her captives and asked again, “Would you like to play a game with me? I think you’ll like it. I just made it up, just right now, just for you,” she laughed.
Tabitha raised four of her fingers and said, “This little horsey didn’t play well with others and made everyone fight,” and the girl lowered one of her fingers. The first Horsemen screamed in pain as his head was pluck from his body like a grape pulled from the stem.
“This little horsey coughed and made everyone sick,” and she lowered her second finger. Like his companion, the second Horsman’s head flew into the air and hit the ground hard.
Tabitha turned to face the third Horseman, lower her third finger and said, “This little horsey’s stomach growled and made all the people so very hungry.” Blood and intestines shot high into the sky as the Horseman’s stomach violently exploded.
Tabitha looked upon the final Horseman and whispered, “And this little horsey died and fell down, down, down, all the way to Hell.” She lowered her last finger and each of the Horseman’s arms and legs was pulled from its body. The head of the horsemen twisted slowly around. The snaps of its spine elicited screams of pain from the once mighty being. The body parts separated and tore free from the bloodied torso and were tossed away like one would discard rubbish and trash.
Tabitha stared at the corpses and her smile of pleasure gradually faded. She fell to her knees and wept. She cried for the loss of innocence. Tabitha grieved for the loss of her mother. She cried until the morning sun peaked over the horizon and banished the stars from the sky overhead. Tabitha cried until exhaustion overcame her and she surrendered to the numbness of sleep.
